Ocean of Darkness
by MayhemPrincess
Summary: She should have known Max wouldn't have forgotten about her...she should have known something was terribly wrong. Max would never have abandoned her willingly. Pricefield, Amberprice, AU, Dark themes, tw: rape, abuse, drugs, kidnapping, torture. Nothing too explicit, but don't read if you're easily triggered.
1. Chapter 1

**Timeline:** _AU Set a month after Rachel disappeared._  
 **Prompt:** _Max never contacted Chloe because either she was kidnapped/parents died and she was put in the system/parents didn't let her. Either works. Angst is ok but I'd like a happy ending if possible. ship: Pricefield, of course._

Altered some of the prompt's requirements to fit with the story.

This fic is unbetaed and written on my phone, All mistakes are mine( and autocorrect's) .

* * *

It had been yet another painful week for Chloe.

She should be used to it by now. Every day had been painful since her father died, since Max moved…abandoned her and never onced called in five fucking years. She cursed and threw the first thing she found- a half empty beer bottle- against the wall, watching as it exploded upon impact.

"Fucking hell! What the fuck is wrong with you Price!?"

For five years she had been drowing in a constant sea of darkness and pain and the only moments she had been able to see the light were when she had been with Rachel. So why the fuck were her thoughts so focused on Max when she should be thinking about Rachel? Rachel who was missing, Rachel who probably needed her help.

Chloe should be looking for her, should be doing something -anything- not sit in a corner of hers and Rachel's lair, wasted and unable to keep Max out of her mind. The same Max who never contacted her. The same Max who swore she'd never abandon her and did just that a few days later, when Chloe needed her the most.

Max who she both missed and hated so damn much.

Screaming in frustration she pushed herself up from the ground and stalked off back to her truck. She'd dig into the last of her stash once she got to her place and hope it was enough to make her forget for a while…

She sped up across town barely avoiding a few cars on the way. It wasn't long before she was parking in front of her house and slamming the truck's door shut. Emotions clouded her mind and she didn't notice anything strange at first as she walked towards the front door.

It wasn't until she hit the ground hard that she noticed the package by the door. Glaring at it she almost kicked it in anger when she noticed her name written on it.

"What the fuck?" She frowned reaching for the package. Who would send her something? No one really…Except…

Rachel!

Heart pounding in her chest, the blue haired punk tore into the package, sure that this was her missing friend finally trying to contact her.

She wasn't prepared for what she saw when she opened the box. Dozens of disturbing pictures of a familiar young girl tied in a dark corner, staring at the at the camera with a dead look in her eyes.

She gasped dropping the box in terrified shock, the contents spilling onto the ground.

"Max!?"


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN:** I feel like a horrible person. Writing this fic is totally going to destroy my shipper heart. But I have to keep going and get to the (sort of, because after something like this things can't be all fluffy and perfect) happy ending._

* * *

The blue haired girl hadn't even noticed her legs giving out under her until she was slowly crawling closer towards the pictures. Trembling she reached for them and looked at them again. "Oh God no…." She sobbed, her hand covering her mouth as she struggled to keep down what little she had eaten that day.

It had to be some kind of joke. A horrible, sick, disgusting joke. It couldn't have possibly be real, because what kind of sick fuck would do something like this for real?

It couldn't be real. Because something like this couldn't have happened to her of all people…

Not to Max… Never to Max.

Especially not the Max she saw in the pictures. This was her Max… Her sweet thirteen year old best friend. She couldn't be older than fourteen… Chloe cried in pain, something breaking inside her as she forced herself to look at the other pictures….

No… What kind of world did this? Who did this? She watched through the images as Max became thinner, her terrified eyes became duller, and any trace of emotion disappeared with time… She saw how her best friend became older and more broken with each picture.

Bruises and cuts usually covering her body… and as she got older she no longer wore clothes… No. No Fuck no. It was to much… Chloe barely had time to move to the side before she emptied her stomach onto the grass.

On the ground a picture showed her, broken, bleeding friend, chained to a table, being… oh God… raped by a man whose face couldn't be seen.

–-

When Joyce got home after a long shift, she found the front door open wide. Her eyes narrowed and she prepared herself for another fight with her daughter after she lectured her about leaving the door open again.

Once she entered the house, however, she froze eyes widening in terror at the sight of the destruction inside. The entrance was trashed and she feared the worst. "CHLOE! " She called out her daughter's name in fear.

Hearing a whimper she rushed into the living room, gasping when she saw Chloe curled up on the floor, clutching at her chest in obvious pain. "Chloe!" The blonde rushed to her child's side, checking her for injuries to explain the pain on her daughter's face, in her eyes. "Chloe, Chloe what happened?"

"Oh God." Chloe threw herself into her mother's arms, sobbing into her chest and clinging to her the way she hadn't in years. "God… Mom, it hurts so much."

"What hurts honey? What's wrong?" Joyce asked desperate for an answer. Needing to know the cause of her daughter's pain.

"It's my fault. I should have known. I should have… " The blue haired girl trembled in Joyce's arms. "I should have known she'd never abandoned me. I could have done something… to help her.

"Her?" Joyce shook her head in confusion. What was she talking about? Unless… Oh dear.. It couldn't possibly be… "Sweetheart… Is it… Did something happen to Rachel?" But her words only made Chloe sob harder.

Shaking her head in denial the teenager looked at her mother and answered with an anguished voice. "Max…it's Max." And Joyce froze.

Her thoughts going to a small, freckled girl who was still like another daughter to her despite the years without any form of communication. And who, she knew, still held a big part of Chloe's heart. "Max? Max Caufield?" What had happened to make Chloe react like this? "Chloe… What happened?"

Her daughter cried harder and pulled away. She reached for a box Joyce hadn't noticed before and handed it to Joyce with shaking hands.

–-

When David arrived home, he immediately knew something was wrong. The front door was wide open and as he entered the house his face paled at the mess… He reached for the gun he kept hidden in his boot moved forward slowly intent on searching the house and praying for his wife's safety.

The moment he entered the living room and immediately lowered his weapon. Sitting on the couch was Joyce, tormented eyes and wet cheeks. His sleeping step daughter's head on her lap as she gently ran her fingers through soft blue hair.

"Joyce? "

She looked at him and he felt his heart clench at the pain in her eyes. "David… I… We need your help."


	3. Chapter 3

_"She's never leaving me!" She told her father, so sure in the knowledge that Max was hers forever._

 _Her best friend, her first mate. Her Max. She thought that maybe she'd like to kiss her._

 _She had such pretty lips after all. Chloe didn't know how she hadn't noticed them before. But for weeks now, her eyes would find them every time Max smiled, every time she bit her lips in nervousness._

 _Max was so fucking cute and Chloe was sure they'd be each other's first kiss._

 _Her little brunette was so shy though. So Chloe would have to be the one to make the first step._

 _She'd take Max to their fort. They'd have a picnic and the Chloe would kiss her. She'd just have mom help with the food..._

 _But she wouldn't rush._

 _She had time to prepare. Make it really nice for Max. Just like she had been dreaming for weeks now. And she better make sure to not stare at Max's lips..._

 _She was pretty sure her dad had noticed her doing just that. But Chloe had a feeling he would be okay with it..._

 _But he couldn't. He couldn't because he died... How had she not remembered? William was gone._

 _Her daddy was gone forever._

… _and Max._

 _"My dad got a job... in Seattle. W-we are moving in a week."_

 _And Chloe felt like dying..._

 _Images of dark twisted pictures delivered to her door..._

 _Max gone._

 _Max hurt._

 _Max alone._

 _"No! " She grabbed the brunette by her shoulders shaking her. " No. Don't leave! You can't. You'll get hurt... Max please... "_

 _" I'm sorry." The young girl whispered. And Chloe's fingers suddenly slipped through the smaller girl as she faded. The room flashing around her and turning into a dark, cold room..._

 _"It's too late... " The broken girl in the corner whispered_.

 _ **-M &C M&C M&C -**_

A warm hand on her cheek was the first thing she felt when she became aware of her surroundings.

"Max?" her hands grabbed onto the one on her cheek, but she sighed in disappointment when she opened her eyes and saw Joyce, not Max, looking at her with sad eyes.

Still she didn't push her away like she would have before. She was too exhausted to put up her walls. And maybe too broken to ask what she needed to without having someone keeping her from falling apart.

"... Is she...?" Chloe couldn't finish because he mother's eyes became sadder. Anguished. Even if she managed to keep a poker face.

"I asked David for help." She tensed waiting for Chloe to snap at her for mentioning David. But she relaxed a few seconds later when Chloe didn't react. The blue haired girl not caring much for him, but needing to know more about Max decided to let Joyce talk.

"He has some connections, some of his old friends work with the Seattle Police Department..." She continued hesitantly, making Chloe frown. She wanted to tell her to get to the point, but at the same time she was terrified of what she would say. "It was...soon after they moved there... Not even a week..." She trailed off not sure how to continue.

"Just tell me... " Chloe needed to know, even if it hurt.

Joyce sighed. "There was a robbery in a restaurant. Max and her parents were having dinner there..."

"Chloe... Ryan and Vanessa were killed..."

Chloe shook her head in denial. It had been so long since she had last seen them. They had been like another set of parents to Chloe, not as open and warm as her father had been but Chloe had cared about them too and they had always welcomed her into their lives and their home. And she had hated and blamed them for taking Max away from her...

And they had been dead all these years.

"What about Max?" She asked desperately, clutching her mother's arms, shaking her. "What happened to my Max?" She had lived, she knew that... The pictures.

"How the hell did she end up in those pictures?" Had she been kidnapped? Taken by the people who killed her parents?

"Chloe... Max was put into foster care."

She heard the words but they didn't make sense. It just wasn't possible. "What? That's not... what about her family? Vanessa's parents? They would have taken her in!"

Something in Joyce's eyes hardened with what Chloe thought was anger and disgust. "They refused to take her in... I don't know why, I don't know how they could have done such a thing, but they did ... and she was placed in a foster home... She was adopted after a while... They... They seemed like good people, a good home. They already had two young children a boy and a girl."

"Wait... They hurt her? They were the ones who..? " Joyce nodded.

"The police found her,. She had been missing school for over a month. The... Parents." The waitress sneered at the word. "They claimed she was sick... but they had her in the basement... She's in the hospital right now."

The younger Price couldn't believe it. How could this be real? It was Max... Her sweet shy Max... Anger coursed through her body, she wanted to hurt her grandparents for abandoning her. She wanted to kill the bastards who hurt her.

But most of all she just needed to see her. "Mom, I have to see her. I need to see her." Chloe cried. Tears of pain and anger running down her face. "I need to see my Max."

"I know, dear... I know." Joyce pulled her daughter into a hug, rubbing her back gently in an attempt to comfort her.


End file.
